


Exceeds Expectations

by glitterfox19



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Cinnamon Roll Scorpius Malfoy, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Albus Severus Potter, Sharing a Bed, Traditions, albus potter is a Certified Idiot, gross amounts of christmas fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 07:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17096183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterfox19/pseuds/glitterfox19
Summary: Albus made the mistake of claiming that he doesn’t like Christmas that much in front of Scorpius.





	Exceeds Expectations

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Scorbus Secret Santa 2018! I had so much fun writing this :)

“You don’t like Christmas?” There was a loud bang as a Gryffindor girl slammed her fist onto the table. The impact made the silverware rattle. It rendered the entire table silent. All heads turned to scrutinize the person on the receiving end of the outburst, who was none other than Albus Potter.

Albus shrunk down in his seat and avoided eye contact. This was not how he wanted to spend his dinner. He had been in the middle with a quiet conversation with Scorpius when Sally - or was it Sandra? - interrupted him to belittle him. “That’s not what I said.”

“I think Christmas is overrated and sucks. Quote of Albus Potter.” Another girl pointed a finger directly in Albus’ face, which made him slide down in his seat even further. The entire table was looking at him with faint distaste, except for Scorpius. Scorpius was sipping at his tea, holding the mug with both hands, and looking like a mildly perturbed middle-aged librarian. Any minute now and he would start clucking his tongue. The other stood up and leaned over the table, starting right at Albus. “Don’t try to deny it.”

“Maybe let’s change the subject.” Albus’ voice quivered. He felt himself color, but no one seemed to notice. As soon as the girl folded her arms and sat back down, the entire table erupted into chatter that was mostly pointed criticism of Albus’ opinions. He silently lamented the fact that he didn’t return to his dormitory as soon as he was finished with dinner. That would have been the smart move.

“How can you not like Christmas? It’s obviously the best holiday.”

“Mashed potatoes are the best part!”

“And presents!”

“And you’re not even going home for Christmas. Even if you were, it’s not like your family is horrible. You dad’s-”

“I think we’ve exhausted the topic of Christmas.” Scorpius’ soft voice cut through the barrage of questions. Somehow, he managed to sound louder than everyone else. The Ravenclaw boy who had voiced that particular opinion about Albus’ family shrunk back, as if Scorpius were some intimidating creature from a Care of Magical Creatures classes and not the mild-mannered, nerdy sixteen year old that he was. He turned towards Albus. “Albus, how was your mock exam in Potions? Do you think it went well?”

Someone tried to ask Albus another question, but Scorpius dutifully ignored them and trained his gaze on Albus. It made Albus sweat a little bit. Albus sat up a bit, looking out of the corner of his eye, wary of more ridicule from the others. When none seemed to be forthcoming, he looked back at Scorpius.

Scorpius smiled encouragingly at Albus, small but genuine and warm. After fourth year, his smiles became something to be treasured. It wasn’t like they were more rare; they were probably just as frequent. But something had changed. Everything had changed. Even their friendship had changed. They were closer now. And Albus had realized something huge.

When Scorpius had fallen limply to the ground on that fateful day during fourth year, Albus only cared about protecting Scorpius. He hadn’t thought for a second that Delphi might hurt him, too. He was so focused on Scorpius that he didn’t even think about himself. And that was when he realized a fundamental truth about himself, something he’d known for so long but never put the pieces together.

He had feelings for Scorpius. And not like emotions (he was bad at those, too - Lily told him that all the time) - feelings feelings, crush feelings, romantic feelings. Love, that squirmy, yucky, icky feeling that James professed he had for Ella until she dumped him after they dated for two weeks. Albus never understood how boys could like girls that way. He thought that love was something made up, one big in-joke that everyone agreed on. 

Until he realized that Scorpius had the most beautiful hands. Can people have admirable hands? Albus didn’t know that was possible. Until he realized that he wanted to spend the rest of his life joking with Scorpius. Coming home to Scorpius every night. Kissing Scorpius. 

But he kept quiet and didn’t voice that. Merlin knows what Scorpius would say. Something ridiculous that he read in a textbook when he was twelve and was “just curious about what the older students were learning, come off it, Al.” Or a bad joke. 

Scorpius had changed dramatically since he was fourteen. Not in terms of personality - he still liked to gesticulate and talk loudly and without stopping. But physically. It was why having this realization was such a problem.

His cheekbones were more prominent now. They weren’t razor-sharp, but they were more defined. His hair was more controlled. He put more effort into styling it. He’d grown into his height, too. Before, he’d been gangly and clumsy and out of control. And while Albus wouldn’t call him graceful, Scorpius seemed to be more sure of himself and the space he took up. He looked proud. 

Albus snapped out of his daydreaming and scrambled to answer Scorpius’ question. “It went okay.” Albus sat up, thankful that he was no longer the center of attention, and began to describe the trials and tribulations the test had been with as many details as possible. Scorpius listened attentively, nodding after every pause, with bright eyes. By the end of his recounting of how he’d nearly dropped the completed potion onto the ground but saved it at the last second, Albus was moving his arms with wild abandon and talking at nearly full volume.

“Sounds hard.” Scorpius frowned sympathetically before patting Albus’ hand. “But I’m proud of you. You worked really hard on that.”

Albus squeezed his other hand into a fist, feeling himself go soft all over at the praise. He looked at his best friend with stars in his eyes and nodded. 

Scorpius, having finished his mug of tea, stood up to leave. Albus followed him. The two walked back towards the Slytherin common room. It was eerily empty. The muted colors of the lake, coupled with the lack of obnoxious teenagers filling the space gave the room a dark feeling. It made shivers go down Albus’ spine. Albus never thought he’d miss the company of the other students, but he found himself longing for something to occupy the room. It looked frightening with no one lounging about on the couches or doing their homework last minute.

“Can you believe we’re the only snakes who stayed this year?” Scorpius asked. Albus shrugged his shoulders. The creepy atmosphere evaporated with the presence of Scorpius. “There were a lot of Ravenclaws at the joint table this year. Merlin, I hate the joint table. I wish they’d let us keep to ourselves over the hols, but no. Inter-school unity, and all that.”

“Me too.”

Scorpius snagged a blanket from an armchair and threw it over his shoulders. When Albus protested, he lifted up an edge as an invitation. Albus accepted graciously. The two toddled off to bed, sharing the blanket. It was a cumbersome and inefficient way of travelling, but neither of them minded enough to separate.

Albus brushed his teeth with the bathroom door open so that Scorpius, who was leaning off the edge of his bed upside-down, could narrate his wintertime plans to Albus. Albus was partially listening. The stream of the water and the sounds of the floor creaking gently made it hard to hear the other boy. But he did catch the tail end of Scorpius’ sentence, which was, “But anyway, I’ve got my own surprises for you.”

Albus spat into the sink and groaned. He had a prediction for what Scorpius was going to say, and he could already tell that he wasn’t going to like it. “Is this because I said I didn’t like Christmas? Scorp, you knew that already.”

“Yeah, but I thought you only didn’t like it because of your family!” Scorpius countered. Albus shuffled back into the dormitory. He changed into his pajamas as Scorpius monologued about the spirit of Christmas and the historical importance of the season. Not that Albus didn’t care for Scorpius’ monologues - he loved them ferociously. But at that moment in time, Albus’ thoughts were elsewhere.

“We’ll do phases.” Albus crawled into bed, letting Scorpius’ voice lull him into a relaxed state. “I’ll think of the best Christmassy things to do, and we can do them together. Maybe it’s just your family that’s holding you back. Maybe if it’s with me, it’ll be better. Nox.” The light went out in the room.

“I think anything I do with you will be the best ever, Scorp,” Albus mumbled, mid-way through a yawn. “Night.”

It took a moment for Scorpius to respond. “That’s very kind of you, Albus.” A pause. “Goodnight.”

*

“Phase one!” Albus awoke to a bright light. Scorpius had drawn the curtains. It was ridiculously early; the sun had probably only just risen. But that was typical Scorpius. He liked to get up as soon as the sun rose, regardless of how late he had stayed up the night before. Albus could never understand it. “Hop to it!”

“Merlin have Mercy.” Albus groaned and threw a hand over his face. “Let your mate sleep, would you?” He racked his brains, trying to remember why he was receiving this torture. He replayed last night’s conversation in his head, and then stifled yet another groan. He had agreed to this, to be fair to Scorpius. But he was having second thoughts.

“No!” Scorpius crossed the room and began to shake Albus’ shoulders with more vigor and enthusiasm than Albus thought was acceptable at this hour. Albus groaned and refused to budge. “Get up, you big lug! We have things to do! Christmassy ones! I promised I’d change your mind, and you can’t go back on a promise.”

“Scorp,” Albus pleaded before trailing off quickly. He didn’t want to squash his friend’s hopes. And he did want to spend time with Scorpius. And Christmassy things weren’t even that bad, really. As long as he did them with Scorpius. For a moment, he entertained the image of Scorpius and him having an apartment with a small but elegant Christmas tree in the corner. He banished that image before he could get too wrapped up in the fantasy. Ultimately, he gave in.“What are we up to?”

Scorpius jumped, his eyes gleaming. “It’s a secret! And it’ll have to wait until after breakfast. So hurry up!” 

Despite his mild apprehension about the Christmas-related activity Scorpius wanted him to do, Albus scarfed down his breakfast in minutes and waited patiently for Scorpius to finish his mug of tea and toast. “Al, you’ve gotta learn to pace yourself.”

“Eggs are good, though.” Scorpius rolled his eyes and dunked his toast into his tea, earning a disgusted noise from Albus. “Ew. I can’t believe you’re doing that. I’m going to lose my appetite.”

“Sure you are.” Scorpius rolled his eyes good-naturedly as Albus continued to wolf down his breakfast. “Looks like you’re having real difficulty.”

“Mental difficulty,” Albus said through another mouthful of eggs. Scorpius elected to sip at his tea rather than respond.

After a few rounds of teasing Scorpius for his weird tea habits, they left the table in a rush to return to the dormitory.

“Put on warm clothes.” Albus nodded and started to rustle around in his trunk for some suitable clothes. In the end, he had on what was probably an excessive amount of layers, not counting James’ old grey beanie and his mittens. Scorpius was wearing a new scarf. It was massive and green and embroidered with a massive ‘S’ on it. While it covered up half of Scorpius’ face, it wasn’t hard to tell that Scorpius was smiling underneath it.

In the corridor, Scorpius paused, and turned towards Albus as if he had something important to say. He leaned in very close. Albus waited with bated breath. And then, Scorpius took off, shouting, “Race you there!”

“Not fair! I don’t even know where we’re going!” Albus dutifully followed, running as fast as he could. He caught up to Scorpius as they rounded a corner and overtook him in a narrow part of the corridor. 

“Take a right!” Scorpius yelled. Albus obeyed, doing a hairpin turn into another section of hallway towards a set of closed doors. He pushed them open and was greeted with a vicious gust of wind that nearly knocked him over. He stopped dead in his tracks with little warning to Scorpius, which might not have been the smartest idea. The other boy ran straight into his back.

Albus made a surprised sound, and then the two went headfirst into the snow that had accumulated overnight. 

“Nice going.” Scorpius stuck out his tongue and pushed Albus. Albus shoved back, and soon enough the two were wrestling in the snow like they were little kids again. Then Albus gathered some snow in his hand and chucked it at Scorpius. Instead of Scorpius yelling out indignantly as Albus expected he would and retaliating furiously, the other boy stood up and held up a fist, looking triumphant.

Albus chuckled, lying down on his back in the snow, looking up at his weird (and perfect, and beautiful) best friend. The sun framed Scorpius’ head perfectly. He looked angelic from this angle. “What’s gotten into you?” 

“You, my dear Albus Potter, have just predicted what I wanted to do!” Scorpius threw up both hands to emphasize his point. “I drag you out here for a snowball fight, and you know what’s happening before it even begins! This is perfect!”

“Uh.” Albus sat up. Scorpius was speaking nonsense again. He had a tendency to do that when he got too excited about a concept. Or got too excited about anything. He was easily excited, it turns out. “I’m not following.”

“Phase one of the Make-Albus-Love-Christmas Plan-”

“Hold on, there’s a plan?” Albus said, holding up a hand. Scorpius kept talking as if Albus wasn’t even speaking.

“-Was to incorporate a snowball fight into our holiday break. And you started one, without me asking! I think you’re already getting into the Christmas spirit.” Albus folded his arms and scowled. 

The minute he started to frown, he got smacked in the face with something very cold and wet. Irritated, he wiped at his face, and turned towards Scorpius. He was bent over at the waist from laughing so hard. Albus reached for his wand and muttered a simple charm. Balls of snow began to form in the air.

“Your face! You should’ve seen your…” Scorpius, who had been in the midst of a ferocious bout of laughter, trailed off at the sight of twenty-odd snowballs hovering in the air at Albus’ command. The boy threw his hood over his head and said, rather eloquently, “Oh no.” Albus flicked his wand and the snowballs began to rain down on Scorpius. Scorpius made a mad dash for cover and pulled out his own wand.

From then on, it was all out war. Forts were hastily assembled. Territory was claimed, and lost, and regained. Snowballs of every shape and size imaginable were flung from every angle. Trenches were dug, for no reason other than the fact that trenches looked cool. There were no rules to this snowball fight. The boys attacked each other mercilessly with strategy (Scorpius’ plan) and brute force (Albus’ plan, though he could never intentionally hurt Scorpius). The battle occupied them for the better part of an hour.

Finally, a white flag was conjured and raised. Scorpius stuck out his meagre flag further, looking sheepish. “I didn’t think you’d get that intense about this whole match,” Scorpius confessed when the two were reunited. “I thought it would be a nice, easy way to get you in the mood for Christmas. I didn’t think you’d actually try to win.” Albus grinned. Then his grin faltered as his focus was captured by Scorpius. 

Scorpius was soaking wet. His hair looked to be dirty blond, rather than the shocking, almost-white color it usually was, and it was curling behind his ears. There were droplets of melted snow clinging to his eyebrows, the point of his chin, on the nape of his neck, above his lips. His cheeks, normally paler than the snow around them, were bright with color.

He absently licked at the droplets around his mouth and on his lips, and Albus forgot how to breathe for a moment.

“All right, Albus?” Albus nodded, slowly. Scorpius lead the way back indoors. “We can get caught up on homework, now that we’ve gotten all of our energy out.” Albus let out a loud groan. It reverberated through the hallway. 

“I thought you had Christmas cheer planned!” Scorpius shook his head, a bemused smile playing across his lips. 

“Tomorrow,” he promised. Albus whined the whole way back to the Slytherin dormitory, but it appeared that Scorpius was holding fast. Scorpius stopped in the doorway to the bathroom and turned to face a distraught Albus.

“First, I need to take a shower. And so do you. We’re both freezing. Well, I am, at least. I’ll be right back.” 

Albus found that there were other, more important things to think about besides homework, starting with the way Scorpius licked his lips. 

*

Phase two happened a few nights later. Albus pestered Scorpius about what his plans were all throughout the days and nights preceding it, and Scorpius continued to pretend that he had no idea what Albus was talking about, or worse: teased him about his aversion to Christmas. 

It wasn’t that he hated Christmas. The holiday reminded him of how he felt different from the rest of his family. Every year, he got a silver and green knitted jumper with his first initial on it, while everyone else compared their red and gold ones. Lily and James both got Quidditch gear as gifts, but Albus got books and new, fluffy socks. Not that he wanted Quidditch gear. It was hard to explain. 

But everything worked out when Scorpius dipped out of a review session of Transfiguration thirty minutes in. “I’ll be right back.” Albus shot straight up and moved to follow him, but Scorpius gently shook his head. “This has nothing to do with Christmas.”

“That’s your lying face.” Scorpius always made an apologetic face whenever he lied. That, and he crossed his arms and loudly tapped his foot against the floor. Albus made his best attempt at a pout in response. “Please? I’ll be helpful. You can tease me all you want about it.”

Scorpius smiled softly and closed the door behind him, leaving Albus to fume over fundamental theories of Vanishing. He had just started to understand an impossibly thick text on the basic formulas and motions when Scorpius returned with a tray balanced carefully in his arms. 

“What are you doing?” Albus sprung up and raced to help his friend, who was puffing with the exertion of whatever he was doing. “Can I help?” 

“You can help by sitting down,” Scorpius said. Albus scrambled to move out of the way and sat back down at one of the tables in the common room. Scorpius bustled about, keeping the tray covered with a cloth.

After a few minutes, Scorpius removed the cloth and waved his wand. Immediately, Albus’ nose was assaulted with the most amazing smells. The room was engulfed with the scent of hot chocolate and baked goods and warm, if that could even be described as a smell. Albus beamed at Scorpius. He remembered belatedly that he wasn’t supposed to be getting this excited about Christmas, but his smile wouldn’t budge. 

“This is amazing!” It seemed that Albus had a very hard time with hating Christmas. Well, he still didn’t like Christmas. But he did like Scorpius - a lot - and now that Scorpius was conflating the two, he started to think that Christmas wasn’t too bad after all when it was spent with Scorpius by his side. “How did you do this? Did you make it?”

“Hah, good one.” Scorpius settled himself into an armchair, a steaming mug of hot chocolate and the plate of baked goods balanced precariously in his lap. “I asked the kitchen house-elves to help me out. Begged them, really. I think they took pity on me.”

Albus snorted, and helped himself to a scone from Scorpius’ plate. The other boy made an indignant sound in his throat, somewhat of a honk, and batted Albus’ hand back. This began a small battle of territorial conquests, mostly surrounding a single, vanilla scone. In the end, they ended up splitting the treat, even though there was more than enough of everything. Albus got a mouthful of the most amazing scone he’d ever had. 

The two sat there, laughing and exchanging stories that they’d both heard a million times before and eating and fighting over the food and jostling each other frequently. Every time they touched, the two would jolt apart as if burned. Then, after a lengthy pause, they would pick up whatever thread of the conversation they’d abandoned and hastily return to that topic. It wasn’t uncomfortable. Just stilted, at points. Tense. Albus thought of it as being similar to being dangled over the edge of a cliff, but not knowing how far it is to the water. Or what temperature the water is. Or if there’s any rocks, or sticks, or rabid animals. That sort of thing.

After they’d polished off all of the baked goods - an impressive feat, considering that they had been left with two dozen baked goods of assorted type - they sat back, feeling as though they might burst, quietly contemplating. That silence lasted all of thirty seconds. It was broken by Scorpius shooting to his feet and exclaiming, “Well, you know what time it is.”

Albus raised his head, feeling his gut squirming in protest at any motion. “Er, close to midnight?”

Scorpius wrinkled his nose. “Is it really?” He double-checked quickly with the clock on his nightstand, and frowned. “Apparently it is. But that wasn’t what I was really saying. I meant, you know what time it is?”

Albus remained silent, but Scorpius began to prod him with his bony fingers. He laughed and tried not to feel warm all over at the contact. He relented after only a few seconds of the tickling. “I don’t know! What time is it, Scorp?”

“Sleepover time!” Scorpius made little motions with his hands, his face stretched wide with a grin. Albus found himself smiling as well. It was hard not to. Scorpius had a contagious smile, the kind that was so massive and genuine and full of joy that it made it impossible not to smile looking at it. That, and Albus was fairly sure that he was at least a little bit in love with Scorpius. Again, it was hard not to be.

His stomach rollicked about, but Albus wasn’t sure if it was because of his feelings for Scorpius or the amount of food he just consumed. He decided that it was the latter. Anyway, it was just a teeny tiny little crush. No big deal. 

It makes sense that he was mixed up about it, though. Albus had rationalized this millions of times. Scorpius was his closest friend. His only friend, really. He didn’t talk to anyone else. Well, he did, but he talked to Scorpius so much more. So it makes sense that his first crush would be on the person he talked to the most. It didn’t hurt that Scorpius wasn’t hard to look at. Actually, one could argue that it was very easy to look at Scorpius. But the best part - the most important part - was that Scorpius was a good person, and a good friend above all. So it was only natural that Albus felt more for him. 

But back to the point at hand. “Scorp, don’t we always have sleepovers?”

“Well, yeah, but we never have real ones.” Albus was going to argue that point, but then Scorpius put a hand on the back of his neck. Albus got distracted by the bright red flush that had traveled from Scorpius’ cheeks and was now lighting up the skin underneath the curve of his jaw, the back of his neck, and above his collarbones where his nightshirt hung loose. Scorpius cleared his throat and straightened up. 

Albus found himself nodding, even though there wasn’t anything to be nodding about.  
“Okay, let’s do a sleepover.”

Sleepovers, in Scorpius’ eyes, were not that complicated. What it really meant was sleeping in the same bed. Which Albus could do. It was a simple request, and he was capable of doing that. Totally.

Having brushed their teeth, changed their clothes, and settled down from their midnight snack, the two boys stood on opposite sides of the bed. Neither of them seemed to know what to do, or how to go about this. Which was silly, because the two of them had shared a bed plenty of times in the past, when they were younger and wanted to read or talk. They’d fallen asleep together in the same bed, too. Plus, no one else was there to judge them for it.

In the end, Albus ended up climbing under the covers first and offered a blanket to Scorpius, who followed soon after. The two ended up rather tangled together under the sheets; the beds were meant for only one person, after all. They remained completely silent for a deathly long time.

“Goodnight,” Albus managed eventually. Scorpius coughed and turned towards him, feeling blindly in the dark for Albus’ shoulder. Albus felt his cheeks get warm, and thanked whatever celestial beings were out there for how dark it was, so Scorpius couldn’t see the affection leaking from his whole body.

“Nighty noo.” Scorpius shifted a bit more until he faced Albus. That did nothing for Albus’ racing pulse and thoughts. In fact, it was a while longer before Albus fell asleep. He found it hard to look away from the dark shape of his best friend. 

The next morning, Albus was the first one to wake up. That was unusual. On most days, Scorpius would shake him awake or wait patiently for Albus’ alarm to go off and the two would trot down to breakfast together. But this time, Albus blearily opened his eyes and didn’t see his best friend sitting up in bed, reading a book. 

He rubbed at his eyes and glanced down at Scorpius. The other boy was sleeping peacefully, his chest rising and falling. One of his arms was extended towards Albus, the other underneath his cheek. His legs were entwined with Albus’. 

For awhile, Albus just sat there, waking himself up and stretching and relishing in being the first one awake. Then, when he caught himself staring for too long, he reached over and gently grabbed Scorpius’ arm. 

“Huh?” Scorpius jerked awake, but only partially. He refused to open his eyes, and instead felt around blindly. He latched onto Albus’ head. Albus let out an audible squeak. “Oh, it’s only you.” Scorpius flopped back into bed.

“Wow, way to improve my self-confidence.” There was no biting retort. Scorpius was not awake enough for joking around, it seemed. “I was beginning to think you’d never wake up, sleepyhead. How are you feeling?”

“All right.” Scorpius stretched his arms towards the ceiling and made small groaning sounds. “I feel really tired. We didn’t stay up too late, did we?”

“No.” Albus had, though. It wasn’t easy to fall asleep with Scorpius mere inches away from him. “C’mon, let’s get breakfast.”

“Mmkay.” Scorpius nearly had to be dragged to breakfast. Albus didn’t mind, though.

*

A few days later, it was time for the special Hogsmeade trip for all of the students and faculty remaining on campus for Christmas break. It departed at eleven that morning and was scheduled to return before dinner. 

That morning, the two jumped out of bed. They showered, dressed, and packed up as fast as they could before hurtling themselves through the hallways of Hogwarts and to the Great Hall to scarf down breakfast.

Over toast and jam, they avidly discussed Christmas gifts, who was impossible to buy for and who wasn’t, and the like. Albus slowly found himself beginning to enjoy talking about Christmas, which was a decidedly weird sensation. 

It wasn’t that he took particular pleasure in hating one of the most widely celebrated holidays. It was just that it felt like part of his personality at this point. His main traits were being grumpy, reserved, sullen, and a hater of Christmas. Okay, one of those was not like the other. “Scorpius, do you get what I mean, though?” 

Scorpius only partially understood it. Scorpius didn’t understand precisely what it was like, being a member of the extended Potter-Weasley tree. The other boy didn’t have siblings that he was constantly being compared to, a legacy on his shoulders, impressive cousins who were saving the world, a million aunts and uncles asking him what his plans were for after graduation and how did he score on his O.W.L. results. In fact, Scorpius wanted that. He had no idea how Albus could resent his biggest dream.

Albus tried to explain that it wasn’t like having a family all the time was a bad thing, either. It was about the expectations. People liked uniformity, tradition. People tended to be allergic to change. Albus, in everyone’s minds, was the established oddity of the Potter clan, and not always in a bad way. It was just the way it was.

“But why do you want to continue to be the black sheep?” Scorpius was having a very difficult time understanding what Albus was trying to explain, and Scorpius hated it when he didn’t get a concept. He was drawing patterns with his leftover jam, the muscles in his jaw twitching as he tried to reason his way through Albus’ speech. “Isn’t that a bad thing?”

“It’s a bad thing, yeah, but it’s the expected thing. Imagine how weird it would be if… if you brought home someone, suddenly. Your dad would be confused, because you never seemed interesting in dating before.”

Scorpius turned the same color of his jam and dropped his fork with a clatter. “He would not.”

“He wouldn’t?” Albus pried gently. There was a flare of jealousy shooting through his stomach, but he kept his temper in check. Scorpius stared down his plate, the muscle twitching again. “Wait, has something happened that you haven’t told me?”

“No! I didn’t mean it like that. But I’m just- well, my dad… you know, he-”

“It would be like if James quit Quidditch forever and became a librarian.” Albus tried to smile in a way that conveyed that he understood Scorpius. Scorpius chewed on his lip and looked at Albus through half-lidded, apologetic eyes, which did not make Albus’ sentences come out as clearly or as suave as he had hoped. “It wouldn’t be a bad thing, per say. Just really, really unexpected.”

Scorpius flapped his wrists the way he always did when he tried to rationalize his point of view. “But that’s different, because that’s James’ life. It’s his passion. Do you have a passion for being grumpy?”

“I guess? I mean, when you put it like that… I don’t know.” Albus glanced over at the clock, desperate for a subject change. He began shoving potatoes into his mouth. “We better hurry up if we don’t want to be late. It’s ten minutes to eleven.”

Scorpius shot out of his chair immediately. He offered his hand to help Albus up, which was unnecessary, Albus thought, he was perfectly capable of getting up on his own. Then Scorpius’ hand grabbed his and the contact, for its brevity, sent burning sparks into the palm of Albus’ hand and all the way down his arm. Scorpius removed his hand and acted normally. Albus tried not to linger on the fact that contact clearly did not have the same effect on Scorpius as it did on him. 

It was a meager assembly of students heading out. It didn’t take too long for the group to organize and set out for Hogsmeade at a brisk pace. Albus and Scorpius stayed towards the back of the clump, dreaming about what candy they wanted to buy from Honeydukes and thinking about presents for their families. 

They almost had a repeat of their snowball fight from a few days ago, but refrained when one of their professors caught them with a stern look.

They were lucky to have permission to go to Hogsmeade in the first place. McGonagall almost didn’t allow them to after the events of fourth year, but she reluctantly did so after deciding that the two had been punished enough for what they had witnessed. And all of those detentions. Albus shuddered thinking about the amount of time he had spent polishing trophies and cleaning abandoned classrooms. At least Scorpius had been alongside him, cracking silly jokes giving impromptu history lessons about random magical artifacts that they found. Albus isn’t sure what he’d do without Scorpius. 

The snow coated the path to Hogsmeade and all of the rooftops of the squat buildings in town. It was dazzlingly white, almost as if it had been spelled clean of dirt. The sky was overcast, which was Albus’ favorite kind of weather. The shops were bathed in the yellow light of their lanterns, giving them a warm, inviting glow. It looked like something out of a postcard.

Once they had split off from the group, they made a beeline for Honeydukes so that they could get the best candy before anyone else. Albus jostled Scorpius’ shoulder lightheartedly. “Is phase three related to food in any way?”

“No.” Scorpius was frowning at his feet and making a face like he’d accidentally just toppled a child. Scorpius was a terrible liar. His biggest tell was in his facial expression. Albus laughed and nudged him again.

“I was right!”

“Okay, maybe you were,” Scorpius conceded before gesturing to the shop. “Phase three is about enjoying Christmassy foods! Like candy. And butterbeer. And-”

“Wait, how is butterbeer festive? We can get it year round.” Scorpius shrugged, examining a red and green candy with a thoughtful expression.

“I don’t know. It’s fun to drink warm when it’s cold outside.” Scorpius put the candy back down and turned to Albus was a determinedly reticent face. “But we don’t have to if you’re not in the mood.”

Albus straightened up. Scorpius’ facade of indifference had crumbled almost immediately. The other boy was gazing forlornly at his candy, and Albus was pretty sure that his friend’s downtrodden expression was not a result of the candy managing to insult him. “It sounds nice. We can go.”

“Oh, good! I didn’t think you’d agree.” Scorpius colored. “I mean, not that I had no faith in you - I do, I have a lot of faith in you - I just thought that you were- oh, bother.” Scorpius threw his arms around Albus, who stumbled back, surprised by the sudden weight of Scorpius in his arms. It was an awkward hug, mostly because Albus’ head was squished between Scorpius’ arms, which were scrambling for purchase on Albus’ shoulders. It was a miracle that neither of them slipped and sent their intertwined bodies crashing to the floor of the shop.

They left Honeydukes with their pockets full with various chocolates, gummies, and other sweets, some of which were holiday themed. Albus popped a mint chocolate into his mouth as he braved the cold, relishing in its burst of flavor. 

The journey between shops wasn’t too long, thankfully, and they were both seated at a table in the Three Broomsticks near the fireplace with warm butterbeers in practically no time at all. Albus focused on taking steady sips, watching Scorpius make foam mustaches from across the table. Then he started to focus on keeping his heartbeat from racing.

They didn’t order any snacks. Instead, they tried the candy that they’d bought and enjoyed the warm feeling the butterbeer left in their chest. Albus was more convinced that the gently seeping warmth was a result of Scorpius’ loud and bubbly laughter than it was because of the drink in his hand. He tipped back the bottle and snorted as Scorpius spat out a particularly sour candy into his palm.

They stayed there for over an hour and a half, making their way through their collection and ordering another two rounds of butterbeer. After awhile, they sat there, warm and contented and sleepy, not willing to move. Albus stood up and stretched. The bones in his back complained with a cracking sound. 

“Already?” Scorpius stood up quickly after Albus did, but not without a complaint or two. “I feel like we just got here.” He flashed Albus a quick smile before lacing up his boots. Albus was fairly sure he needed to go to a Healer to get his heart checked out. He either was having complications from the drink or from Scorpius’ smile. It was probably the latter.

“Won’t be long ‘til we’re back at Hogwarts. Unless you want to go somewhere else?” Scorpius shook his head.

When Albus opened the door, he was greeted by a fierce wind and snow falling from the sky. Scorpius’ mouth fell open. The two rushed out into the street and tried to catch a snowflake on their tongue, before Scorpius threw some snow in Albus’ direction and started yet another snowball fight.

This one didn’t last as long, though, because Albus started shivering. He wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to stop chattering so wildly. He didn’t want to ruin the moment. However, Scorpius was scarily observant. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Scorpius twisted his mouth and raised his eyebrows, sending Albus a look of pure disbelief. Albus held up his hands and relented. There was no way he could lie to a face like that. “Alright. I didn’t bring enough clothes. But it’s alright, I can just duck into one of these shops and buy a scarf or something, it’s my own fault anyway-”

Albus trailed off mid-sentence. Scorpius was pulling off his jacket. He held it out to Albus, jiggling it a little the way people would jostle a toy in front of a toddler in order to make the object seem more inviting. Albus stared at his best friend. He couldn’t help it. It was so unexpected that he didn’t know what to do with himself. “You can have mine.”

“Aren’t you cold?”

“Not too bad. Here.” Albus finally took it, holding the fabric in wonder. He shrugged it around his shoulders, trying to keep his focus on anything other than Scorpius’ bright red face. It smelled distinctly like Scorpius, a smell Albus could never exactly describe. The jacket was warm and felt like he was encircled by his best friend. He nuzzled his face into the fuzz of the jacket. 

They walked back on the path in almost total silence. Albus suddenly feeling hot all over despite having been freezing only a few moments before. Scorpius kept apologizing for the holes in the lining where he stuck old wrappers in, and the loose threads, and-

“Scorpius, it’s perfect,” Albus said in an undertone. Scorpius swallowed whatever sentence he was about to say with a squeak.

“Good. I’m- good. Glad. Yes.”

If the two boys walked closer together on the way home than they did on the way there then, well. It was cold outside, after all. Nothing more to it.

*

“How did you get that in here?” Albus dropped the cup he had been drinking from onto the ground. It shattered, but he was too entranced by whatever Scorpius was hoisting up to repair it. It seemed as though Scorpius had gotten ahold of a tree. And had brought it into the Slytherin common room. 

“Ask questions later.” Scorpius grunted as he tried to swing the tree around, but it was too big for him to hold in his arms and it went crashing to the ground. But he didn’t give up. Instead, he redoubled his efforts on picking up the tree.

“Why don’t you just…” Albus trailed off and reached for his wand. He repaired his shattered cup with a murmur and set it aside on a nearby table. Then, he cast another spell to lift the tree up horizontally. It hovered in the air, nearly skimming the ground, but stable. 

Scorpius crossed his arms. “I could’ve done that.”

“But you didn’t.” Scorpius let out a grumpy sound and stuck his chin into the air. Albus tried not to laugh, he really did, but Scorpius looked like a toddler on the verge of a temper tantrum. He burst into laughter, nearly dropping the tree in the process.

Scorpius looked like he wanted to laugh as well, but he abstained so he could help Albus levitate the tree. They backed it into a corner, having moved away some furniture, and tilted it on its side so it stood up. Scorpius conjured a base for it to stand in and a tarp so it wouldn’t litter pine needles everywhere. Gently, they guided it to stand on its own.

“Nice!” Scorpius clapped his hands together. Albus looked at the tree. It was only a little taller than he was, and rather squat. It was a dark, luxurious pine tree. Scorpius looked back at Albus with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Phase four begins!”

Albus threw up his hands. “Damn you!” he called out, his words full of mirth. He pretended to be reluctantly amused, but he knew that Scorpius knew that he was actually excited. He drew Scorpius in for a tight hug. Scorpius’ chin dug into his shoulder, but he didn’t mind, and the two of them were laughing and wrapped up in each other and-

Albus dropped his hold on Scorpius, took a step back, and cleared his throat. “Sorry. Anyway. What are we doing with this tree?”

Scorpius looked a bit distant for a moment, his blue eyes glazing over, before ducking out of the room. “Be right back!”

When he returned, he had a myriad of items in his arms. Trinkets, little twinkling candles, and other sorts of decorations. “It’s a tradition to decorate a pine tree for Christmas! You know that already, though, but… we can do it together!”

There was so much hope in Scorpius’ eyes that even if Albus wanted to say no, he couldn’t. Merlin. Looking at the other boy for too long was like a punch to the stomach. It hurt, how beautiful he was. Not because Albus couldn’t have him, though that was part of the problem. Scorpius was an angel with his white-blond hair and his perfect, delicate angles and his narrow frame and his bony wrists. Albus couldn’t look at him too long because it was like looking at the sun. He was sure he would hurt his eyes if he let his gaze linger for an extended period of time.

Scorpius tapped him on the shoulder. “Er, all right?”

“Couldn’t be better.” Albus cleared his throat and tugged at his collar. “Let’s get decorating!”

Scorpius grinned and skipped over to the radio. He fiddled with its controls, and moments later, Christmas music began to blare at full volume. Albus wrinkled his nose, trying not to wince noticeably. The radio’s speakers were ancient and made low screeching sounds sporadically. The choice of song was unpleasant as well; it was ridiculously overplayed and repetitive. He looked up, about to complain, and saw that Scorpius was singing off-key under his breath. He decided he could deal with the noise.

It was an hour long ordeal. First, Scorpius had to organize the ornaments and lights by color and size, which Albus told him was unnecessary because they were going to stick everything on the tree anyway and what’s the point of rearranging stuff if we’re just going to put it somewhere else, but Scorpius would hear none of it. Then, they had to string the lights around the tree, which was difficult because the lights refused to stay attached. And then there was the problem of the lack of electricity.

“Can’t you use a spell?” Albus pleaded for what felt like the hundredth time. Scorpius turned to him with a murderous look in his eyes, so Albus stopped asking. Scorpius was tugging at a string of wires, a frown etched deeply into his face. Albus got back to working on perfectly positioning the lights on the tree.

At one point, Albus ended up ensnared with the tree and its attached wires. He struggled, but every time he moved, he would either inhale pine needles or get poked by a stray light bulb, and he was worried that he might topple the tree over if he wiggled too much. “Scorp? A little help, please?”

Scorpius glanced up. “You deserve your fate.” Albus squawked indignantly, but there was no need. Scorpius dropped the difficult section of wire almost immediately and got up to help him. Albus stayed very still, hardly breathing, as Scorpius bit his lip and focused on removing knots. “There. All set.”

“Thanks.” Merlin, he sounded breathless. It was embarrassing. On the plus side, Scorpius had turned a nice shade of pink, and his hair was loose around his ears. That was an endearing sight. “Need help with your…” Albus realized that he had no idea what Scorpius was doing and tried to salvage the sentence. It was no use. “Thing?” Albus felt his face go hot. 

Scorpius coughed into his hand. “I’m good, thanks Albus! You can focus on stringing them.”

About thirty minutes later, Scorpius yelled. Albus nearly dropped the glass ornament in his hand. Scorpius jumped up, ran over to Albus, and threw his arms around him. “I got the stupid lights to work! Albus! Look!”

Albus couldn’t take his eyes away from Scorpius’ flushed face, his giddy smile. “It looks nice.”

“Yes! That took forever! I thought it was this charm, but apparently I was mixing it up with this other one...” Oblivious Scorpius was jumping up and down for joy. After a moment, he collected himself and looked back at Albus. The smile slipped from his face. “Are you okay? Did I hit you by accident? Oh, shoot, did I smack you in the head? Or wait… Have you had enough water to drink? Are you dehydrated? You look a little woozy.”

“Good. I’m…” Albus took a deep breath. “Good. Yeah.”

Scorpius looked at him as if he didn’t quite believe it, but he dropped the subject regardless. He was such a good friend. Albus felt his heart swell with affection. “I can’t believe that worked! It’s going to look so pretty!”

“Yeah. Pretty.” Albus was a hopeless sap. This time, Scorpius caught him staring. Albus ducked his head, hoping that Scorpius wouldn’t comment.

“Do I have something on…” Scorpius seemingly lost his train of thought. He was gazing at Albus with a starstruck expression. Albus hardly dared breathe. Then, Scorpius seemed to shake himself and rolled up his sleeves. “Let’s get to work lighting all of these now, yeah?” 

“Yeah. Okay.” Albus was fairly certain he was going to need a replacement heart if Scorpius kept looking at him like that for much longer. 

*

“Why’ve you brought me out here?” It sounded like it should be a complaint, but it came out more curious than anything else. Albus could see his breath forming clouds in the air. He let out a strong exhale and watched the wisps of his breath take form and fade away. Like a dragon puffing smoke.

“Final phase, dummy.” Scorpius threw his arms wide as if he was presenting something. All Albus saw was the Black Lake. It was completely frozen and looked more formidable than ever. Albus swallowed, feeling himself get caught on the word final. He didn’t like the sound of that.

He knew he was being a little ridiculous. Well, more than a little ridiculous. His friendship with Scorpius wasn’t something new. And it wasn’t like they would suddenly stop being friends after the hols were over. But something about their friendship felt delicate as of lat. Like a glass sculpture. Or an ice carving. Something that was exciting and beautiful, but also fleeting. There was a time limit hanging over their heads. Albus hoped it was his imagination. At the same time, though, he wanted this - whatever this was - to be real. He hoped Scorpius could see it, too. 

“What are we doing?” Albus asked. Scorpius jumped a little, grinned, and then attempted to squash his grin and pulled out his wand. He turned around, cast some enchantment, and then held out a pair of shoes towards Albus, now unable to contain his toothy smile. Albus narrowed his eyes to get a closer look. Those weren’t shoes. Scorpius was clutching ice skates. Wait, where did he get ice skates from? “Did you make these?” 

“Hah, no. I bought them a while ago. Well, I bought one pair forever ago, and then duplicated it and altered the other pair to your foot size. Not that I measured your shoe size while you slept, or anything. That would be creepy.” Albus covered his mouth before he could let out an obscene sounding snort. He ended up making a sound anyway. Scorpius’ face colored. “I didn’t!” 

“I believe you, I believe you.” Albus held his hands up in an attempt to pacify his friend, but Scorpius was on a roll. 

“I looked at your shoes when you were asleep, s’all.” Scorpius folded his arms and looked down at his feet. He started speaking quickly and loudly. “And I made it look like something you’d want to wear. I never thought I’d use it, though, and it felt like a silly gift, so I’ve just been holding onto it for a long time now.” Scorpius shrugged his shoulders as if all the hard work he had done was meaningless and offered the ice skates to Albus without glancing up. “I hope you like them. Happy Christmas, Albus.” 

Albus stared at the skates in his hand. They were black with dark green laces. He tugged off his boot and shoved his foot in. It fit perfectly. He put the other one on and looked at the design. There was a miniature ‘A’ imprinted on his heels in the same dark green color.

“Uh, if you don’t like them, I can get you another gift. It’s okay. We also don’t need to go ice skating. I don’t want you to feel like I’ve been forcing you into doing these silly things. Because I’m not. I want to spend time with my best friend and I want to make fun memories with you. And it would be nice to change your negative thoughts about Christmas, but it doesn’t matter if you-” Albus swept Scorpius into his arms for a hug. Scorpius squeaked, but returned the hug nonetheless, burying his face into Albus’ shoulder. “Oh, hugging. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s- good. It’s nice. Yeah.” Albus’ breath stuttered. He rubbed the blond boy’s back with a hand, slowly moving up and down. 

“I love them.” Scorpius’ head whipped up. Albus wanted to laugh. He had no idea how Scorpius could be so shell shocked by that statement. It was clear that Scorpius had put so much time into making these for Albus. Even if he hated skating, which he didn’t, he would still be blown away by the handiwork. 

“You mean it?” Scorpius’ eyes were shining. It made Albus’ chest tighten. He squeezed Scorpius closer. The other boy, his hair tousled by the wind and his face stretched impossibly wide with pure joy, looked down, surprised by the movement. Albus felt himself matching Scorpius’ expression. His heart felt so full. Like it could burst any moment.

“Yeah.” Albus felt Scorpius’ warm breath on his face. He watched their collective breathing rise high into the air before scattering with the wind. Dragon smoke. He remembered the shape of the dragon that they’d witnessed during their brief time travel stint. The way they had cheered raucously for Durmstrang, looking like total idiots with their horrendous German accents. The fond memory made his heart twinge. 

“Scorpius,” Albus said. And then stopped. He didn’t know how to say any of what he wanted to say without it coming out funny. He tilted his face a little bit forward, letting his nose touch Scorpius’. “Scorpius,” he repeated, trying to communicate without using his words.

“Okay,” Scorpius said, his voice barely louder than a whisper. He lifted his chin up and made eye contact with Albus. Searing eye contact. Albus swore there was smoke rising from the two of them now. If he squinted, Albus swore he would’ve been able to see red sparks rising from his hands. “It’s okay.” 

“Okay.” Scorpius closed his eyes. Albus cupped his jaw, stroked his cheekbones with his thumbs gently, and closed the distance between them.

There was a moment where everything was still. Sparks were flying up Albus’ arms. His hair stood on end. Scorpius threw his arms around Albus, bringing the two closer together. It was everything that Albus had imagined, and yet it was somehow nothing like his fantasies. It was better than his fantasies. Albus had never felt so wonderful as he did in that moment.

They separated, Albus holding Scorpius’ face, Scorpius with his hands wrapped around Albus’ neck. For a long while - maybe three seconds - neither of them spoke a word. They looked at each other, both a little dizzy. They had stupid smiles on their faces and their eyes were half-shut, almost like they were about to kiss again. Albus was fairly certain that his chest would burst any minute now and rudely interrupt them.

“I thought you’d never do that,” Scorpius confessed. Albus raised his eyebrows up so high they nearly flew off of his face.

“Merlin, do you know how long I’ve been waiting?”

“All I’ve ever wanted-” They began to speak over each other, everything spilling to the surface all at once. “You’ve always been my best friend-” “My only friend-” “Most important person, period-” “I’ve dreamed about you-” “Can you believe it?”

Scorpius let out a laugh, resting his forehead against Albus’. “Can you believe it?” he repeated, his mouth hovering over Albus’. Albus traced a pattern onto the nape of Scorpius’ neck, relishing in the blush that settled on his cheeks when he did so. The blush that he caused, that he was allowed to cause as often as he’d like. He felt so giddy that he could scream.

Quietly, Scorpius murmured, “Do you believe in Christmas now?” 

There was a pause as Albus processed. Then he groaned, but he was unable to keep the smile from his face as he spoke. “Why are you spewing cheesy stuff already? Give a guy a break, Malfoy!”

Scorpius yelped dramatically, calling Albus’ words a “stain on his honor” and claiming “you know you love it.” It was true, but Albus wasn’t going to admit it was true quite yet. Scorpius grabbed a fistful of snow and waved it threateningly. Albus took off at a sprint back towards the castle with Scorpius in hot pursuit. 

They would ice skate. Not today, but they didn’t need to go ice skating today. They had all the time in the world.


End file.
